Tuesday, December 22, 2009

History's Rewriters

This is what we're looking at. Brilliant documentary here.

There's nothing quite like style masked as substance. Like those Calvin Klein ads, or the mini-dramas that whisper the name of a specific perfume just before fade-out, there is a way to say something, to set a tone, without offering specifics.

Polo by Ralph Lauren doesn't specifically say you need to be rich to enjoy this product, but it helps. So too, here. You needn't be Christian, protestant, white and undereducated to get behind this message - such that it is - but you'll probably feel more welcomed amid this crowd if you can check off all of those boxes. As some of their cardboard signs explicitly state, those in government who are "pushing too hard" against the aforementioned groups, be advised; the membership is not afraid to weaponize if you don't stop doing whatever it is you are doing. Again, no hard specifics here; more of a loosey-goosey. The president shouldn't be black, we can guess, shouldn't have a "Muslim" sounding name, just generally "shouldn't"....whatever.

This is what Glenn Beck is creating with his Constitution Party, all tone, all racist, violent, psuedo-christian-centered, and quite simply anti. What is it anti, you might ask? Everything that those who aren't "real Americans" represent.

As the reporter said in an aside, if you repeat "socialism" "communism" and "fascism" over and over again, they not only lose their meaning but form a nice sort of cabalistic chant which motivates the masses. They don't know what these things are, but, they are sure Obama is bringing them, and they are sure these things are evil. What evidence do they have that our president is bringing these things? Well, sound out his name yourself. It sounds evil, doesn't it? He must be.

If you watch this video you learn a few things 1. That Barack Obama is not a Christian, and in fact he was mentioned in the Bible, as the antichrist. 2. Hitler was a good speaker, therefor Barack Obama is possibly Hitler reborn. 3. Czars came from Ceasar during the Roman times. 4. Czars are going to be taking land from "devout" Americans, and giving it to someone, most likely someone undeserving. Perhaps the native Americans, or black welfare mothers. Those who are not "real Americans."

Glenn Beck of course isn't disuading any of his disciples from espousing false, hostile or overtly violent beliefs. As a leader he is perfectly happy that the rhetoric - hatred, racism, unfounded paranoid delusion - contiues so long as the flock keeps following himself.

Beck uses his antithesis, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as sort of a totem, or kewpee in his show's opening credits. By Beck's smirk, we note the awareness of his little act of blasphemy. We thank that he is subtle enough not to have yet invoked the name of Ghandi in all his rantings. And Beck now feels sufficiently emboldened to repeat King's march on Washington D.C. and is planning a rally at the feet of Abraham Lincoln, all to come this summer. This, outwardly to "liberate" the masses from overspending. Here, we can safely predict Beck will not be espousing non-violent social change. He will avoid this sort of talk, the way a vampire avoids sunlight.

We recall that King was continuously warning his flock not to lapse into hatred, for the sake of the nation; not to take anything he said at the pulpit as an excuse to descend to that level. These reminders were daily. No such words of sage calm flows from Beck who, unlike a moral leader, distances himself from the whims of his crowd rather than accepts responsibility for "unintended" inferences they might have made from his vitriol.

History has had its rewriters and bad leaders. And Beck is no different. But never before have the bad, nakedly false rewrites come so close on the heels of outright corruption and graft which continues today; especially within the military industrial complex which T-baggers and Beck never seem to mention.

Beck instead points his minions to the alleged transgressions of all blacks via "ACORN" references and extractions. Jews and other non christians, or christians who are not the right brand, i.e. catholics, in his repeated references to Manhattan. And of course the intellectuals, whom he pillories with his jabs at the scientific community.Evironmentalists and scientists take their drubbings which grow daily more acidic. The fact none of his faithful hear the echoes of Hitler in all this, provides sad commentary to the state of our schools, the science of reading, and the overall education level of our citizens, especially the Tea-Baggers, many of whom have no idea what they are talking about. Run the video again, and tell me I am wrong.

Jews, catholics, ethnic minorities, and intellectuals. History's easiest scapegoats are targets before he even touches on the biggest welfare state, GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, DRS, Blackwater, and the list of fat, grazing, self-satisified contractors runs on and on.

Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, and the list of despots who have trod this path of blaming the brainy and the outsiders, runs long and well-remembered among the literate, that is.

The wise American turns his head like the dog hearing the train whistle, at this point. That whistle sounded very similar in pre-WWII Germany. The very people who see Obama as the next Hitler are allowing themselves to be turned into the Brownshirts, shock troop thugs. Many, will not understand this reference to the Brownshirts, because they bullied their school districts into abandoning or glazing over history and science in the classroom, and are doing it again to their own children, goaded by Mr. Beck et al.

But like the high school student who takes the AP version of history, rather than the basic, let's look deeper at the phenomenon of this jack-in-box, rewriter character.

Beck and his mobbish minions, for they epitomise the angry mob of the French Revolution, more than thoughtful founding fathers who sweated and strained against even the thought of killing their fellow British subjects, are merely being played like an old song.

Perhaps The Who, said it best: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

This time, the designated battlefield will likely be right here on American soil after a second civil war which Beck and others push for. Someone is planning on stepping in as the fight breaks out. Beck plays Hitler, thus, American plays Germany, and needs to be taken over and "taught a lesson" by the allies. And it isn't as though our previous president didn't whore away our good name all over the planet to the extent an American can scarcely raise his head in public abroad.

Before the melee begins, these enemies within need to enrich themselves as do squirrels before a long winter. So, what better way than driving down the dollar toward some fictitious doomsday, the 2012 switch, scooping the board when the all-clear sounds, just before the fighting breaks out in earnest?

Beck recently said at The Villages, Florida he would hold a voter registration drive in Orlando not in "Manhattan" where he is unwelcomed by 'those people' the boogeyman them of his fables and stories.

Really? Beck, not welcome in Manhattan? Nonsense. He's as welcomed there as Sinatra, or Joel. Beck is Manhattan. He can play the folksy guy to the sexually-active edlers at The Villages, Florida but the fact is, half his show at times is dedicated to the island. And what he and G. Gordon Liddy and all their scary hoards will do for Wall Street is make a select membership exceedingly wealthy and powerful when all is through.

For someone who claims to love America, Beck and his advertiser, Rossalin Capital, spend an awful lot of time trying to convince you to hold the American dollar in complete contempt, and toss it away for bits of shiny metal. Have you ever asked yourself why?

The object is power over you: not to raise you to their level. And they will use your innate hatred of "the other" and your need to exact retribution over that "other" no matter that it is ill placed, as means to enslave you. But, they need you running like lemmings over a cliff in order to elevate themselves to the stratosphere of wealth and power. And they are willing to feed this nation to our enemies in order to accomplish this.

The civil unrest being sponsored by Beck will allow even more foreign ownership of our institutions. Watch what I am holding in my right hand, while I misdirect you from what is happening behind my back.

This is the recurrent theme. Beck uses retread racism to galvinize the well-fed masses, be-decked in polo shirts, sun hats, T-shirts, shorts and sansabelts, all brandishing American flags, to become insensed at social programs such as schools, and sex education, all the while, the spending which began under a conservative, republican president, in the name of war, has been quietly tallying up a bill none of us can pay.

Beck doesn't want you to remember that, where all this nonsense began, he would rather you look at those who have different skin and different lifestyles, your fellow Americans, and hate them. Because that will raise a ruckus faster, you hatred of your neighbor, your fellow American.

People, this has all happened before. Hopefully we "won't get fooled again."

1 comment:

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

What is "My Bladder is Full"

My Bladder is Full is dedicated to the concept that in these difficult times, it is far better to be pissed off, than to be pissed on. Like it says in the title, "it's healthy to release."

My Bladder is not for the squeemish. And there is every chance that word is not spelled correctly. But it just might be. So I leave it.

My Bladder seeks out targets of the absurd, targets of self-importance, and the ... just a moment while my wife yells at me:there, all done ... corporately flattulent, and stabs them squarely in the balls with my rapier wit, bad, violent metaphors, and poor spelling.

I am the noisemaker at the back of the room, the malcontent who never grew up, and I will be heard.

Find What Fills My Bladder! From Glenn Beck to 2012

About Me

Editor David Kearns is the author of Where Hell Freezes Over (Dunne Books 2005) the non-fiction account of his father's plane crash and rescue during Naval Operation Highjump, Antarctica 1946/47.
He graduated from Florida Tech 1987 with a degree in Geological Oceanography. He spent two years in Honduras as a Peace Corps Volunteer (1988-90) working with small scale farmers and fishing cooperatives. His writing career began in 1994 working for weekly newspapers, then local dailies in Sebastian, Florida. David enjoys surfing, fishing and travelling to Ireland with his family.
DavidAnthonyKearns@Gmail.com